BERRY BLOSSOMS FOR "FREESTYLE FRIDAYS"

It's time for Freestyle Fridays, and I am so excited to share this card!  The mission that Julie issued for me last week was to create a "thank you" card using several punches and Wisteria Wonder, one of Stampin' Up!'s newest "In Color" colors.  For some reason, this new color hasn't been one that's excited me, but I really like the color combination in the floral designer paper that I used ("Berry Blossoms" collection).  Truth be told, if you took away the designer paper, this card would lose its drama!  To complete my mission (and this card), I used the following Stampin' Up! products:

Stamp Sets:  Petite Pairs and Pennant Parade

Card Stock:  Calypso Coral, Wisteria Wonder, Whisper White

Ink:  Calypso Coral, Wisteria Wonder, Lucky Limeade, Basic Black

Accessories: Stampin' Sponge, pearl jewels, ruffled ribbon, Baker's twine, button, "Berry Blossoms" designer paper

Punches: 5-Petal Flower, Lace Ribbon Border, Petite Pennants Builder, Round Tab, Spiral, which appears to have retired recently (big mistake, SU!), and Scallop Edge Border

Thank you, Julie, for presenting another fun mission!  Sometimes the missions are quite challenging but, at the same time, they set boundaries that help me focus on my options.  I would encourage anyone reading this post to try one of Julie's missions sometime--they're really a LOT of fun!  Have a great weekend, and visit me again on Monday for my "snappy Monday" project.

 

BABY, IT'S HOT OUTSIDE!!

It is sooooooooooo hot!!!!!!  How hot, you ask?  So hot that I saw a bird picking up a worm with a potholder!

One of my Facebook friends posted that a couple of days ago, and I thought it was quite amusing.  If a bird could find a potholder, I do believe I could be a witness.

I kept myself indoors today, despite an errand that I really need to run.  I just can't force myself to go!  While I tried to talk myself into going, I decided that I wanted to make a card and use a couple of buttons, and this little hybrid dilly was born.  I borrowed the rattle handles and sentiment from two digital stamp brush sets using My Digital Studio and printed them onto white card stock, which was embossed with Stampin' Up!'s brand new "Stripes" embossing folder.  The rattle handles are from the "Holiday Blitz" stamp brush set.  The image is actually a baby rattle, but I used a circle punch, color-filled with white, to hide the round top of the rattle so that it wouldn't show through my semi-transparent buttons.  The sentiment is from the "Best Wishes & More" digital stamp brush set.  Other Stampin' Up! products used to create this card include Perfect Plum, Certainly Celery, and So Saffron card stock, Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border punch, Baker's twine, and ribbon.  I {heart} My Digital Studio!!!!  If you see a bird with a potholder, grab your camera!

"MY DIGITAL STUDIO" BABY CARD

During the wee hours this a.m. (at that threshold of time where you try to decide should I go to bed or spend an hour or more creating something), I decided to go digital.  I love to purchase new Stampin' Up! downloads for My Digital Studio, and listed below are the ones that I used to design this card:

Stamp Brush Set:  Nursery Necessities

Punches/Shapes:  Flag, Scallop Square, Top Note, Oval

Accessories:  "Nursery Nest Embellishment Kit" (blue bird, ribbon, blue frame), brads, "Nursery" digital designer paper

My finished digital design was adhered to a Marina Mist card, and the colors used on the design include Marina Mist, River Rock, and Very Vanilla.

MAKE-IT-SNAPPY-MONDAY

Oops! I was preparing this post for Monday but, accidentally, pressed the wrong button. It looks like this week's MISM share will just be early!  Ha!


Today’s MISM project is one that I would have preferred to not need. It’s a sympathy card that I will be sending to a very sweet couple whose young daughter passed away over the weekend—unexpectedly and untimely. I wasn’t sure about the colors but—somehow—I feel that they must be “right” because everything about this card just sort of “evolved” into completion. Stampin’ Up! products used include Basic Gray, Whisper White, Basic Black, and Real Red card stock, Real Red grosgrain ribbon, Lace Ribbon Border punch, tag punches, rhinestone jewels, and “My Friend” and “Petite Pairs” stamp sets.

Hug your loved ones . . . every chance you get!

CHAD, MAMAW, AND THE QUILT

In my previous post, I wrote about the quilt that my sweet mamaw recently repaired with LOTS of patches.  When Chad and I visited today to pick up the quilt, I knew that I had to have a picture.  I had forgotten to bring my camera, so I had to use the camera on my phone.  I have placed white arrows on two of the fabric patches so you can more clearly see (from the fabric prints) just how much work was involved to save this quilt and . . . trust me . . . there are many others that you can’t see.  Just look at all of those shapes that mamaw had to cut to fit each problem area.  Knowing what a perfectionist she is, I can guarantee you that she found and fixed many more “problem areas” than Chad or I had even noticed.  The quilt is a treasure, but she is even more so.

MAMAW . . . ANOTHER WORD FOR LOVE

Several weeks ago, I asked my grandmother to “repair” a quilt that my son has been using for years.  Mamaw made the quilt (using her beautiful, evenly-spaced, tiny hand-stitches) more than 30 years ago and had given it to me when I got married.  Until the time that I gave it to Chad, I had used it on my bed.  To say that it has been well-loved is an understatement.  When Chad first told me that he needed for mamaw to “sew up some holes,” he indicated that there were "a few of them."  After mamaw had the quilt for a week, I asked about it and was told that there were a great many places that needed to be fixed and that just when she thought she had marked each of them, she’d find at least five more.  It was communicated very clearly to me that what the quilt really needed was a whole new top, but she knew that Chad wouldn’t want that.  She made a new quilt for him a few years ago, but he used it for less than a week and asked for his “blue quilt” because it was “already soft and perfect.”  Working on the repair process,  she actually found some of the original fabric in her stash to use for some of the patches and, when she had used all of it, had to find other fabric to finish the job.  Bless her 91-year-old heart, she has worked so hard on this quilt (probably harder than when she made it the first time) cutting strips and other odd shapes—each cut being customized for the areas that were falling apart.  When I visited a couple of weeks ago, she showed me all of the areas that had been patched and the others that were marked to be repaired, and I was embarrassingly surprised.  I had no idea that this job I had handed to her was quite so huge!  I so admire my mamaw . . . she is the sweetest, most loving, caring, talented woman that I know, and she is a hard worker!  When Chad was about 9 or 10 years old, he summed it up perfectly when he said that, “Mamaw never gets mad or yells at us” (“us” referring to the grandchildren).  If that isn’t a huge compliment, I don’t know what is!  I am visiting mamaw tomorrow to pick up the quilt, and I am taking a box of necessities/treats to her.  She would never accept money for all of the hours she has spent on the quilt (and I probably couldn’t afford it if she charged me), but I wanted to do something for her.  I’m also sharing in this post the card that I made to accompany the box of goodies.  The quilt-looking background was created using My Digital Studio.  I used scallop square punch shapes, filled them with “Beau Chateau” digital designer paper, added Chocolate Chip stitching, and then printed the design to use on my card.  Once printed, I cut it to size and embossed it with the Square Lattice embossing folder.  Other Stampin’ Up! products used include Pink Pirouette, Soft Suede, and Whisper White card stock, “Tiny Tags” stamp set, crochet flower (from the Clearance Rack), fabric-covered designer button (from the retired Sew Suite collection), vintage trinkets, Modern Label punch, and Crumb Cake taffeta ribbon.

JULIE'S "FREESTYE FRIDAYS" PROJECT

It seems to me that the weeks this month have been zoomng by, and it’s already time for another installment of Freestyle Fridays.  It’s Julie’s turn to inspire us this week, and the sneak peek that she sent has me wondering what the purple floral embellishment is.  It might not be a flower, but I’m intrigued and look forward to visiting Julie’s blog to see the whole project.  It looks like she used one of Stampin’ Up!’s new colors (Wisteria Wonder).  I hope you will take the time to hop over to Julie’s blog, check out her project, and leave a comment.  Have a great weekend, and visit me again on Monday for my snappy project.  I haven’t completed it yet, but it’s on my list of things to do.

SHIMMERY SEAM BINDING & VINTAGE RETIFORM

When I first laid eyes on this new stamp set (“Established Elegance”), I knew that I had to have it.  It seemed to have been designed for the Retiform technique, and it has been years since I made my first Retiform creation.  Since I haven’t had a lot of time to stamp lately, I treated myself today!  My first design looked really good . . . until I sprayed it with shimmer mist.  Before the glittery mist hit the card stock, I knew that the ink was going to run . . . and it did.  ACK!!!!!  So, this evening I had to start over, and this one actually looks better because I swiped Soft Suede ink onto the glossy card stock before I began stamping, which lends an even more vintage-y, antique-y feel to this design.  The shimmer on the Cherry Cobbler seam binding was accomplished with Champagne Mist shimmer paint, which was such an easy-to-do technique that gives an additional vintage flair to the overall card.  All products used to create this card are from Stampin’ Up! and include:  Soft Suede, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, and Glossy White card stock, Sizzix Lots of Tags die, Word Window punch, “Established Elegance” stamp set, antique brads, Fleurettes crochet flowers (from the Clearance Rack), linen thread, Champagne Mist shimmer paint, Stampin’ Dimensional, and Stampin’ Sponge.

"MAKE-IT-SNAPPY-MONDAY"

I am so excited to share this week’s MISM project! I used a brand new My Digital Studio download (“House & Home” stamp brush set) and a fun MDS technique to create the focal point for this card. All of the images in the “House & Home” set are silhouettes, and I used digital punch shapes, filled with “Domestic Goddess” designer paper, to color the lamp and shade. How cool is that???? What makes this such a fun technique is that once you fill the punch shape with designer paper, you can reduce or enlarge the paper AND choose the portion of the design on the designer paper that you want to show on your paper-filled punch shape. Read that sentence again, and let it sink in.  Other digital images used on my card include Baker’s twine, In Color designer button, “Lots of Tags” shape (for the sentiment), silver Hodgepodge Hardware, and Pool Party colored bow. On my finished card, I used the brand new Lace Ribbon punch to create a Calypso Coral lacy border, “Domestic Goddess” designer paper (gingham design--the same design that I used to paper-fill the punched circles/ovals on the lamp base), mini clothespin topped with a Brights designer collection yellow button, Stampin' Dimensionals, and Pool Party card stock. I’m including a close-up photo of my finished design so you can clearly see how dimensional digital designs can appear when you use the "drop shadow" tool in MDS. While the design process for this card wasn’t exactly “snappy,” I’m considering this a snappy Monday project because multiples of a finished MDS design can be printed and used to create several cards . . . in a snap! I {heart} MDS!!!!

DIGITAL "HOUSE & HOME" CARD SET

While looking at the images in the “House & Home” digital stamp brush set, it occurred to me that they’d make a really cute set of cards with sentiment puns and quotes—cards that can be used at any time when you just want to let someone know you’re thinking of them.  I haven’t created a package for this set of cards yet, but here they are:

A closer look at one of the cards:



All products used to create these cards are from Stampin’ Up! and include My Digital Studio, “Domestic Goddess” designer paper, In Color printed designer brads, and In Color ruffled ribbon.  Be sure to visit my blog tomorrow to see my “Make-It-Snappy-Monday” project!